Rasual Butler: There was a lot of talk about Caron Butler after the trade deadline, but Rasual has been a better butler than Jeeves. Rasual made four three-pointers in each of his last three games. Butler also averaged 17.3 PPG in that span in 40 MPG. R.B. has clearly gained value since Al Thornton was given away in the big Jamison deal. He should be owned in any league by owners needed the three-ball. His value could be taking a slight dip because of….

Travis Outlaw: The Outlaw debuted for the Clippers last night and scored 10 points and hit two threes in just 16 minutes. Outlaw broke his foot in the middle of November and had a couple nice 19-point game for the Blazers before suffering the injury. Outlaw has a pretty nice fantasy game with some decent defensive numbers to go along with the jumpers from downtown. Outlaw’s bugaboo is his career field goal percentage coming in at 44 percent. Butler is certainly the guy to own, but the Clippers might want to give Outlaw a tryout.

Taj Gibson: Taj has been benefiting from the severe lack of depth in the Chicago frontcourt lately. Tyrus Thomas was sent to Charlotte and M.I.P. contender Joakim Noah is dealing with plantar fascitis. Gibson highlighted last week with a 20-point and 13-rebound game against the Sixers on Saturday.Joakim Noah has been clamoring for more playing time after playing just seven and 12 minutes in his last two games. Noah’s playing time increase will inversely hurt Taj’s value. However, Gibson has provided a very fantasy-friendly game for his owners by helping in points, rebounds, field goal percentage, steals, and blocks. Furthermore, Noah’s plantar fascitis will most likely be a lingering issues and Gibson will need to play over 35 minutes at some point in the future. Noah is more worthy of ownership, but Gibson should be owned in 12-team leagues.

Marquis Daniels: If you haven’t heard that Paul Pierce might miss some time with a thumb injury, well I guess you were pretty busy (take the high road). M.D. hasn’t exactly been a surgeon with the basketball, but he managed to scored 15 points against Denver on Sunday. If the news comes down that The Truth will miss time, then don’t hesitate to pick-up Mr. Daniels.

Kyle Korver: Aston Kutcher’s long lost brother has been making a splash in fantasy hoops in the past week. The Jazz hastily traded away Ronnie Brewer for a Memphis draft pick and Korver has seen a major up-tick in production. In his last two games he’s posted 10.5 PPG, two treys per games, two steals per game, and five rebounds per game in 31 minutes per game. K squared’s shooting has been off with 35 percent from the floor in those two contests.
Kyle will also be given more minutes now that Andrei Kirilenko could miss a nice chunk of time with back spasms. AK-47’s back has been an issue for basically his whole career and it wouldn’t be a stretch to say he will miss half of the games for the remainder of the regular season.
Korver is a guy to keep an eye on at this point, but deeper league owners might want to pounce on him now.

Mario Chalmers: The most hated player among University of Memphis fans missed nine games with a thumb injury (by the way, beware Paul Pierce owners). Anyway, Rafer Alston was handed the job and was probably more valuable to fantasy teams when he was on the And 1 Mixtapes. Rafer shot 31 percent from the floor over that span with an abysmal two assists per game, so saying he stunk more than the landfill that’s just a few miles south of the Nets’ Arena could actually be an understatement. Can you tell I‘m not a Rafer fan?
But I digress, Chalmers has played well in his two games since his return. His best game of the two came in Memphis (where else?) when he scored 18 points, grabbed seven boards, dished eight dimes, hit four triples, and had two steals in 42 minutes. Mario doesn’t need a mushroom to gain a lot of value and he should be owned in 14-team leagues.

Chase Budinger: Budinger has quietly scored in double-digits for five straight games. He’s played in just 26 minute per game in those games, so he his upside is somewhat limited. Trevor Ariza’s hip will have a significant impact on whether or not Chase is worth a spot-start. He probably shouldn’t be owned in most leagues, but if Ariza needs to miss time, then Chase is a scoop in most leagues.

Jrue Holliday and Willie Green: Holliday and Green should see some more time on the court with Allen Iverson expected to miss a lot of time for personal reasons. These guys aren’t premium options, but deep league owners in need of assists or dimes could do worse.

Darko Milicic: There needs to be some clarification that this is in fact not a joke. Darko is actually worthy of ownership in deep leagues. Darko played 19 minutes on Sunday with eight points, eight rebounds, and two blocks in the loss against the Oklahoma City Kevin Durants.
Darko basically has one foot out the door as he expects to play in Europe next year, but Minnesota could see if he could be better than Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, or Carmelo Anthony. OK, that was a joke.

Thanks for reading! I know we have been recommending a lot of guys this past week, so tune in to the Pick-N-Roll Show tomorrow and we will discuss which players should no longer be in fantasy rosters.

Update: Al Thornton deserves to be owned in all leagues with the news that Josh Howard is out for the year.